Sky’s Ritchie Porte took yellow and opened a possibly insurmountable lead by winning Stage Five of the 2013 Paris-Nice cycling race by almost half a minute.
Porte, who showed his power working for Bradley Wiggins throughout 2012, was Sky team leader at Paris-Nice. The Tasmanian rider used both his team mates and his own abilities to perfection; he advanced from seventh overall, seven seconds down, to holding a 32-second lead with two stages left in the race.
Garmin-Sharp’s Andrew Talansky started the stage only three seconds ahead of second-place Andriy Grivko, with a few dozen riders within 30 seconds. He ended to stretch that gap to be safe in the final uphill time trial which favored other riders more.
Talansky made a bold effort, attacking repeatedly but wore himself out. Ritchie Porte covered all Talansky’s attack, then launched his own effort with 1.4 km to go, and no one could match him. Porte crossed the line 26 seconds ahead of Denis Menchov in second place and took a 32-second lead in General Classification over Andrew Talansky.The fifth stage of Paris-Nice was touted as the decisive stage, but after having seen so many “decisive” stages come to nothing as none of the leaders dared an attack, the label might have been dismissed as hype.
Instead, thanks to the efforts of young American rider Andrew Talansky, the stage was indeed decisive—and the Garmin-Sharp rider suffered what should be a decisive defeat.
There were two dozen riders within striking distance of the yellow jersey at the start of the stage; the top 15 were within 18 seconds of Andrew Talansky. Everyone had a lot to gain by attacking, but a lot to lose if the attacks failed; too often this situation has ended up with safe races, with all the leaders marking each other and no one willing to take a risk.
Sky used the tactic which the team perfected in 2012—taking over the head of the peloton at the base of the climb and setting a crippling pace to suppress any attacks. Sky’s Kanstantsin Siutsou, Ritchie Porte, and David Lopez lead for Sky pulled the field up the final 14-km Cat 1 climb, La Montagne de Lure. For the first nine km, everyone was content to follow the Sky squad, if they could—the pace cracked several riders.
A few riders made weak attempts; Davide Malacarne took off with seven km to go, and got nowhere. Blanco’s Robert Gesink and Lampre’s Michele Scarponi also took a shot and got caught quickly. Sky simply maintained the pace and caught everything.
The stage looked to have a boring finish, but with five km to go, as the road got steeper, the riders stopped playing it safe. Christian le Mevel of Cofidis was the first to attack. Michele Scarponi followed and passes le Mevel, but couldn’t get away. Le Mevel dropped back, but Scarponi persisted, and finally opened a few dozen meters between himself and the rest of the race.
Scarponi was only 18 seconds down in GC; with the ten-second bonus for the stage win, the Lampre rider stood to take yellow—but not without a fight.
With three km left to climb, Andrew Talansky made his move. He had no team mates around him; he was all in with everything on the line.
Ritchie Porte covered the attack, with Movistar’s Nairo Quintana and Sky’s David Lopez following. Shortly after BMC’s Tejay Van Garderen and Katusha’s Simon Spilak joined the small lead group.
Saxo Bank’s Nicholas Roche also joined this group, and attacked it at 2.1 km. Talansky covered this attack, and at 1.9 km, attacked again himself. The leaders pulled him back, and as they did Katusha’s Denis Menchov put in a serious dig.
At 1.7 km, Talansky attacked yet again; Ritchie Porte chased him down. Possibly Porte saw something in Talansky’s cadence or maybe it was his plan all along, but with 1.4 km to go, the Sky team leader launched his own attack, and no one had the legs to cover it.
Porte persisted and quickly had a gap of 20 seconds over the rest of the leaders. No one had enough left in their legs to make the big burst of speed needed to catch the Sky rider; they spent the final kilometer watching each other, waiting for someone to make a break for second.
Finally the two young Americans, Andrew Talansky and Tejay Van Garderen, tried to up their pace. Quinatna and Spilak took off after them. With 500 meters left in the stage, Lampre’s Diego Ulissi and Michele Scarponi tried to team up to take the rest of the podium, but the two Americans, while not strong enough to catch Porte, held on to take third and fourth. Denis Menchov took second, having stayed away for almost two kilometers.
Stage Six will be a killer: 220 km, with five categorized climbs, finishi8ng up with a pair of Cat 1s. This stage could break some riders, but it is unlikely that any of the leaders will gain a lot through attacking, because the last climb peaks 35 km from the finish line. After a quick descent there is a short flat finish, which should give a chance to anyone who fell behind on the climbs.
Sunday’s final stage, the time trial, probably favors BMC’s Tejay Van Garderen of all the top ten, but Van Garderen, fifth overall, has 52 seconds to make up to catch Porte. Assuming everyone can recover after today’s stage, the Sky rider has the strongest team to protect him—and his lead—all the way to nice.
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| 2013 Paris-Nice Stage Five | |||
| rider | team | time | |
| 1 | Richie Porte | Sky | |
| 2 | Denis Menchov | Katusha | |
| 3 | Andrew Talansky | Garmin-Sharp | |
| 4 | Tejay van Garderen | BMC | |
| 5 | Diego Ulissi | Lampre-Merida | |
| 6 | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM | |
| 7 | Jean-Christophe Peraud | AG2R | |
| 8 | Nairo Quintana | Movistar | |
| 9 | Simon Spilak | Katusha | |
| 10 | Michele Scarponi | Lampre-Merida | |
| General Classification after Stage Five | |||
| rider | team | time | |
| 1 | Richie Porte | Sky | 24:26:08 |
| 2 | Andrew Talansky | Garmin-Sharp | 0:00:32 |
| 3 | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM | 0:00:42 |
| 4 | Jean-Christophe Peraud | AG2R | 0:00:49 |
| 5 | Tejay van Garderen | BMC | 0:00:52 |
| 6 | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 0:00:53 |
| 7 | Simon Spilak | Katusha | |
| 8 | Diego Ulissi | Lampre-Merida | 0:00:54 |
| 9 | Peter Velits | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | |
| 10 | Michele Scarponi | Lampre-Merida | 0:00:56 |
